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The
Edinburgh Fringe
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Fringe 2002 Reviews (4)Dealing with Claire Blondeshop is a young company that originally derives from Royal Holloway College. They have the kind of attitude that deserves to be successful. They have taken a relatively unknown play by an established playwright and they have worked and worked at it. Martin Crimp is popular around the world but still does not get the publicity in the UK that his work deserves. Dealing With Clair is based on the true story of Suzy Lamplugh, a young estate agent who disappeared after taking a customer to visit a property. It is far more than a simple mystery story. It also makes significant social comment on life in Thatcherite Britain in the late 1980s. Property prices are spiralling and throughout, the yuppie husband and wife, played by Tom McDonnell and Jackie Bolton, who are trying to sell their house have moral decisions to take. In a world of greed should they gazump their disabled buyer? The answer is inevitable. Their agent is the charming but inscrutable Clair. Angela Ward in the title role catches the mix of personal discomfort and professional varnish well. The battle to remain professional can prove too much on occasions. The play is generally very well written and carefully constructed. The language introduces concepts of death and disappearance at every opportunity. The assumptions that Clair is fair game for any man and that money is paramount are also made very clear. The production is generally well-paced with slick scene changes assisted by Vicki Fleming's lighting. Caroline Steinbeis, the company's founder, does well with her young cast, although ideally, the sinister Mr James could have been played by an older actor than Phil King. Angela Ward's expressive face serves her well, Tom McDonnell comes into his own as a very convincing drunk and Jackie Bolton is good as the moralist who cannot resist temptation. There are a couple of dips in pace but overall this is a promising debut that provides a very enjoyable look at the excesses of the 1980s and a view of a sad tragedy that still remains unresolved. These issues also remain very contemporary at a time when property is shooting up again and people mysteriously disappear daily Philip Fisher Panic Panic, so the company's press release tells us, "unveils the new mythology surrounding our modern Artemis, Britney Spears, and the million strong, neo-pagan cult of virginity, True Love Waits." It posits an opposing Pan cult based around a flower shop which has more employees than any such shop I have ever seen in a small village! It boasts an original score, dance, masks, an orgy in UV light, an abstract set and a very vaginal sculpture. It tells its story partly through flashback and partly through conversations between one of the participants in a Pan cult and a would-be private eye, who is obviously something of an oddball. We first see him, for instance, in an overcoat with bare legs, suggesting he might be some kind of flasher, but he is, in fact, wearing shorts underneath. Unfortunately it is a whole lot less than the sum of its parts. It is very overwritten - wordy would be a better description: "So you're telling me your boss wasn't worshipped as the lusty goat-god of a cult of pagan nymphomaniacs" hardly trips off the tongue, particularly from a private eye - and lacks any tension, dramatic or otherwise. The pace is invarying and there is no light or shade. There may be good dramatic play in this neo-virginity cult idea but this, I'm afraid, isn't it. Peter Lathan Terry Pratchett's Mort Terry Pratchett has a legion of fans, so it was not unexpected to see an almost full house for this performance, and I have no doubt it will stay that way for the rest of its run. The play remains - as far as I remember, for it is a while since I read the book - faithfull to the original, so, as is the nature of most novel adapatations, the play is very episodic. The characters are well drawn: Death is suitably scary and the idea of giving his voice some reverberation is a good one, adding to the other-worldliness of the character. Such a pity, therefore, that the radio mic he was wearing kept dropping its signal occasionally. Mort had an endearing mixture of clumsiness, enthusiasm and innocence and the princess was very reminiscent of Miranda Richardson's Elizabeth I in Blackadder! For the non-Pratchett initiate, it's quite an enjoyable show: for the fan it's a must-see. Peter Lathan We Don't Talk Anymore Debbie is a 32 year old Cliff Richard fan. More than that, she is obsessed with Cliff Richard. This one-woman show looks back to her life, from when she first fell for the Peter Pan pop star, through short scenes (accompanied by appropriate Cliff Richard songs) at age 14, 17, 22, 25 and 28. It's a study of the nature of obsession, beautifully performed by Ali Adolph, who lays bare Debbie's basic insecurities without labouring them. There are no surprises in the writing, no startling new insights into why someone should obsess in this way, but the portrait of Debbie is a fully rounded one and helps us understand. Co2 is a very small, intimate space but the audience at this particular performance was small even in those terms. This is a shame, for it's a worthwhile play, illuminating ann enjoable. Peter Lathan
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